Category Archives for Airlines.
Do you remember when people felt so attached to an airline brand that they paid more money to spend extra time flying, just to demonstrate enough loyalty for when they’d fly in the coming year? It’s hard to say there hasn’t been something lost.
Last month I reported that American Airlines was still considering whether to allow lifetime club members to keep accessing Admirals Clubs when not flying American or its partners same day.
According to spokesperson Leslie Scott, they’ve made the decision to honor access for lifetime members. She tells me, “We are making an exception for lifetime members, we will not require them to have a same-day ticket on American or partner airline in order to access the Admirals Club.”
While Snopes actually has an entry debunking whether United Airlines has an ‘armed seating and apparel division’ the airline is now coming under fire for doing nothing over a passenger’s t-shirt.
On yesterday’s United flight UA824 from Los Angeles to Boston a passenger was wearing a t-shirt advocating hanging of journalists.
Willie Walsh, the former CEO of British Airways and now head of IAG, parent company of BA, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Vueling, has gone public that he’d do a better job than current BA CEO Alex Cruz at resolving the airline’s contract dispute with pilots.
Public efforts to throw his handpicked British Airways CEO over the side and lay blame at his feet for the failure to get a deal done aside Alex Cruz doesn’t even outsource a single IT job without Willie Walsh blessing it first.
United Airlines has declared that miles no longer matter at all – a strange position for MileagePlus to take. Distance flown no longer matters for earning miles. Redeeming miles is more revenue-based with the elimination of award charts. And now even qualifying for elite status will be based on spending starting next year.
You can earn status by spending more than before and counting up the number of flights you take, or just based on spending alone. Here are 11 takeaways from this historic change.
None of this represents change for the airline, instead it’s a shuffling of roles and reporting. Interestingly this announcement of changes to leadership does not include the words Doug Parker. I might have expected Parker, under normal circumstances, to have a quote included in the release.
I submitted a new status challenge request around 4 p.m. on Sunday and then before 8 a.m. on Monday I had already been approved for another status challenge. They’ve added a quirk I don’t recall from the challenge last time. Fortunately there’s a way around it.
Next month the Rimowa kits will be replaced with Ferragamo kits. An EVA Air spokesperson explains that Rimowa, which has been acquired by luxury behemoth LVMH, “is ending its cooperation with airlines on amenity kits.”
As a result EVA will “offer its new Ferragamo amenity kits to business class passengers on all long-haul flights. But work on design and content is still in progress. EVA does not yet have photos or sample kits.”
Chicago O’Hare, Miami, Los Angeles and Dallas Fort-Worth have Impossible Burgers for purchase at $12. There’s also made-to-order ramen (“the Ramen Bowl shredded carrots, green onion, tomato and ramen noodles are prepared in the kitchen and warmed with the vegan lemongrass broth”) and some clubs lave local Destination Dishes on the Food for Sale menu.
The new “build-your-own mac and cheese stations…have a host of topping options, including onions, bacon and crushed chili cheese Fritos.”
Swiss only lets Miles & More elite members book first class awards (usually). Air France has had a similar policy for its first class seats. For several years you’ve needed to be a Flying Blue elite member to be able to spend miles to redeem for first class.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
